What it is. A space between words is as much a part of writing as the letters.
Why our test works. A space has nothing on the page to look at, so it cannot be checked by eye alone. Putting a finger in makes the gap into an object with a size — checkable by the child, and visible to you from across the room.
Leans on. Grade 1 lesson 7.
Watch for. Spacing collapses first when the child is thinking hard about content. Check it on their PROJECT writing, not only here.
Leave one finger space between words. The worked example is the one you build on the board: Teacher writes two words with no space, then again with a finger placed to hold the gap. The class reads the teaching page printed at the top of the sheet — our own writing, so a child who was absent can still get the lesson.
You open by saying where this sits — what it follows and what it is part of — in one sentence, and then you give them the reason it matters, in your own words, for about ten seconds.
Then you do one yourself, building it on the board and leaving it up: Teacher writes two words with no space, then again with a finger placed to hold the gap. The board copy is what they look back at when they stall, so it stays there for the whole lesson.
The We-do is the main whiteboard moment of the lesson — short answers, boards up on your signal, every child visible at once. Class writes a two-word phrase using a real finger as the spacer, then removes it. If the answer is a whole sentence rather than a word, take it on the printed sheet instead, because a sentence written on a whiteboard is written once and destroyed.
They read the teaching page — printed at the top of today's sheet — with you, either read-aloud or FASE, never round robin. Stop at the worked example and let them look at it.
Exit directions in full, standing still, before anyone moves. Then they work alone: Copy one short sentence with finger spaces. Then copy it again without using your finger.
You close on the exit direction — Show me the space between your last two words. — taken from every child before anyone stands, and then the line you want them to still have tomorrow: One finger, every time.
Spacing collapses first when the child is thinking hard about content. Check it on their PROJECT writing, not only here.